Teachers Have a Thing to Say on Tests’ Value

It isn’t a gripe session. There’s too much passion in the room--not to mention flashes of frustration--to call it that.

So they sit in a circle of desks Monday night in a Chapman University classroom, 17 public schoolteachers in a master’s-level course, fearing that the state of California has it all wrong with its reliance on standardized tests to gauge pupil performance. The problem, the teachers cry out, is that the emphasis on doing well on reading, math and writing tests has the proverbial unforeseen consequences. Such as:

* Depriving youngsters of a broad-based education.

* Failing to teach youngsters the wonders of learning, as opposed to the wonders of acing a standardized test.

* Pretending that doing well on a standardized test really defines a student’s progress.

One teacher quoted a parent as saying, “I thought they painted in kindergarten.” She says she told the parent, “Sorry, there’s no time.”

Over the 90 minutes that I listen to the teachers, their anger seemingly leaps from desk to desk.

“I feel like I’m in this hole that keeps sinking,” one says.

No Simple Answers

They know their concerns don’t lend themselves to TV sound bites or one-shot newspaper columns. The discussion these teachers desperately want to have with anyone who will listen leads down a dozen side roads. It touches on the complexities of teaching in districts where students have widely varying achievement levels and personal backgrounds. It’s a discussion that gets to the nub about the true essence of education.

But with political pressure afoot to measure public school success--as if there is a precise formula for that--the teachers fear no one will listen. Arguing against school accountability, however arbitrary or flawed, is like arguing against putting more police on the streets.

None of the teachers, many of whom teach in low-income areas where their students’ English proficiency may be low, disparages the need for them to read and write and compute.

“Everyone knows that passing a test doesn’t mean a student is learning,” says one.

Worse, they see a double whammy. If students do well on the tests, it may not accurately gauge their knowledge. If they do poorly, it may consign the student to inferior feelings and, ultimately, a lack of interest in school.

The teachers know that that dichotomy alone is an entire town hall meeting.

Which no one is about to hold, they say.

Voices in the Wilderness

Leading to another side road: No one at the district or state bureaucracy, they think, listens to teachers.

“Just let us teach,” one says. “Trust that with the education we’ve gotten that we understand . . . and that we know how to do it.”

One teacher lauds a unit on the California Gold Rush but, because of her school’s emphasis on the standardized testing, says, “There was no way I could squeeze in any of it.”

To me, another deadly issue looms: Teachers in this room, dedicated enough to pursue advanced degrees, are on the brink.

Barbara Tye, who’s taught master’s-level courses at Chapman for 15 years, is worried too.

“This is unprecedented,” she says, “this level of concern, the intensity of it. I’ve really not encountered this to this degree before.”

*

I joke about teachers being known as complainers, and Tye says, “Ordinarily, teachers, at least when they come into grad work, are not complainers. . . . Educators are optimists by nature. They have to be, sometimes, to keep on going.”

By the time I leave class Monday and step into the balmy night air, I feel like venting myself.

Why? This is a tough issue. It lapses into jargon that turns off the public.

But if these teachers are right, school administrators of sharp minds and strong wills must dive into the fray. I’m not sure I trust politicians to straighten out California schools, anymore than I trust them to solve California crime.

My contribution is limited to advice to administrators:

Listen to your teachers, even if you disagree. You can separate the idle complainers from the ones who really care.

“We’re professionals who are not respected as professionals,” one of the teachers says. “That’s frustrating. We’ve made a choice to invest our lives in children. That’s why we teach. We respect the students. We need the community to respect us as teachers.”

If not, Tye says, everyone loses.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com